Yeah, big +1 to that. We have done some research into the reasons people join and stay, and location/proximity are consistently WAY lower on the top 10 list than anybody expects.
That data (and more) can be found in this synthesis: http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/alexknowshtml/quantifying-community-how-we-measure-success-in-a-coworking-space I also had a couple of academic researchers on my podcast recently who found that things like "proximity" are far less indicators of people choosing coworking, since the people who choose it generally have workspace alternatives that are closer than the one they end up joining and paying for. Location matters, but it matters a lot less than you might think if you're actually solving a problem for people. -Alex On Thursday, April 2, 2015, Andy Soell <[email protected]> wrote: > I know this isn't exactly what you're asking, but Alex's post reminded me > of one of the most interesting and unexpected things I've found since we > opened our space nearly 3 years ago. I expected that we would have around > 80% of our members coming from the immediate neighborhood, but I've found > that people are more than willing to commute if the place they're commuting > to is a place they enjoy working. I just took a quick scan of our member > roster and less than a quarter of our members live in what I would consider > the neighborhood of either of our spaces. Several of those 25% are in the > neighborhood because they've specifically moved here after joining us, > which is even more incredible. > > So yeah, it's not necessarily about proximity as much as what you're > offering and the kind of community you're cultivating. > > On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 9:44:02 PM UTC-4, Alex Hillman wrote: >> >> How many people are in a radius doesn't really matter, if none of those >> people care about or need Coworking. >> >> We did something counterintuitive when we began: we put Indy Hall in a >> place where NONE of our community members already were. We chose a >> neighborhood that was easily accessible my public transit (something >> important to our community), but all of our early members lived in 3 main >> parts of the city and we chose to open in an area that was relatively >> central to all 3. If we had picked any one of those three parts, the >> other 2/3rds of our community would've felt more disconnected. >> >> Bur I say relative because that's important. There is ALWAYS someone who >> will say that you're too far away. In our case, that can be as "far away" >> as 4 subway stops. It depends on what people are used to. >> >> All of this stems from answering a bigger question and asking: who are >> your members? Not a demographic, or people you hope to reach...but who are >> the ACTUAL people that you CAN reach. Where are they, and where do they >> already go? Do they cross neighborhoods? How do they get there? What kind >> of work do they do? Can they work from anywhere? Do they have the power to >> choose where they work? Do they like the way they work, or is there a >> problem or set of problems? >> >> I'm a HUGE supporter of doing pop-up Coworking (aka Jelly, >> workatjelly.com) for a while before selecting any space because it's the >> ideal way of seeing who actually shows up, and where, and most importantly >> WHY. Is it because they need a place to work? Or...is it because they're >> lonely at home and cafes are awkward to be a professional. >> >> And you can find all of that our before ever wasting time on finding the >> "perfect" location (which doesn't exist, that's a fantasy) and without >> spending a dollar, unsure if you'll ever see that dollar again. >> >> -Alex >> >> ------------------ >> *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* >> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com >> Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com >> >> >> On Wednesday, April 1, 2015, Cassidy <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> What metrics do you all gauge to decide whether a location will work? >>> Like, >>> - at least 100,000 people in a 5 mile radius >>> - at least 100,000 small businesses in a 5 mile radius >>> etc. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> Cassidy >>> >>> -- >>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Coworking" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> ------------------ >> *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* >> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com >> Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast >> >> -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','coworking%[email protected]');> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ------------------ *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
